The MailOnline published a statement from the defense ministry, which said:

At the experimental space site Plesetsk a combat crew of the Yoshkar-Ola missile unit carried out a test launch of the solid propellant mobile-based intercontinental missile (ICBM) RS-24 Yars with a multiple re-entry vehicle.

The warheads reached the designated area at the Kura proving ground in the Kamchatka Peninsula. All tasks have been coped with in full.

Officials said the purpose of the missile test was to ‘reaffirm the reliability of the missile, which was first deployed in 2010’.

PA

According to Military Today, the RS-24 Yars is an ‘upgrade’ from the TOPOL-M class missile which was introduced in 1997. They said it weights around 50 tonnes, measures 20m and can be launched from a ‘ground silo or mobile vehicle’.

They describe the ‘three-stage, solid fuel rocket’ as capable of travelling ‘up to 7,500 miles and carrying at least six nuclear warheads’ which can be independently targeted.

Over the past week, the US flew stealth fighters and dropped bombs on the Korean peninsula in a show of force.

It came in the wake of North Korea’s sixth nuclear test, four F-35B stealth fighters and two B-1B bombers participated in the exercise which aimed to ‘demonstrate the deterrence capability of the US-South Korea alliance against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats’.

Tensions are incredibly high, with missile tests and threats from North Korea.

The ‘rogue state’ last week made yet another threat to the US as new satellite images which indicated Kim Jong-un was – and probably still is – readying for a new nuclear test.

North Korea threatened to ‘reduce the US to ashes and darkness’ in response to the latest sanctions imposed by the UN.